Mark Crawford returns to Theatre Aquarius as A Christmas Story’s nostalgic narrator
iPhoto caption: Photo of Mark Crawford courtesy of Theatre Aquarius.
This holiday season at Theatre Aquarius, Mark Crawford is living his musical theatre dream.
Although the celebrated writer-performer — whose plays include Bed and Breakfast, The New Canadian Curling Club, and The Birds and the Bees — has performed on stages across the country, it’s not often that he finds himself razzle-dazzling audiences in a musical number. That’s about to change with Theatre Aquarius’s upcoming show, A Christmas Story: The Musical, which opens in Hamilton on December 4.
Crafted by songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — the musical team behind Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman — and book writer Joseph Robinette, A Christmas Story had its Broadway premiere in 2012, earning three Tony nominations. The musical is based on the 1983 film A Christmas Story, as well as the film’s source material, the short story collection In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by the late humorist Jean Shepherd. In all three incarnations, a little boy named Ralphie Parker pulls out all the stops to get his ultimate Christmas wish: a Red Ryder Carbine Action BB Gun. The musical frames Ralphie’s story as a radio broadcast, narrated by Jean Shepherd himself — played, in this production, by Crawford.
”I love nothing more than a musical,” said Crawford in an interview. Growing up, the first shows he ever saw were musicals “at Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend. People often say they don’t like musicals, [which for me is like] people who say they don’t like kids, or puppies, or joy.”
Crawford is not a musical theatre performer by trade, and the role of Shepherd doesn’t require belting or high-kicks. Still, “I’m delighted to be asked to join the choreography sometimes,” Crawford said. “In those brief moments where I get to do things on the beat, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I’m living my dream!’”
For Crawford, “there’s something also really joyful about being in a musical that is part of people’s holiday traditions. We have 19 children in the show. It’s a great reminder every day of what Christmas is like for kids.” Although Shepherd’s original stories weren’t strictly autobiographical, in the musical “it’s [the narrator’s] childhood that is being acted out,” Crawford explained. “I witness everything that happens. It’s fun to shadow Finn Kirk, who plays Ralphie, and find moments where I’m standing by witnessing my younger self, or moments when we’re totally in sync.”
Crawford’s most recent collaboration with Theatre Aquarius was as a playwright, so it’s serendipitous that he’s returned as a writer playing a writer. In 2023, Theatre Aquarius produced the world premiere of Crawford’s play The Gig, a show that broke new ground for the theatre and its Hamilton community.
“The setup of [The Gig] is that three drag queens are hired to perform at a conservative campaign launch,” explained Crawford. “One of them knows what the event is, and two of them don’t. As the play begins, they’ve just found out what it is they’ve actually signed up to do. And the Queen who’s said yes to the gig, his sister is the conservative politician who’s running in this riding.”
Although The Gig “is absolutely about drag and conservatism, the big question that I had in my mind is like, what do we do when we don’t agree with people?” Crawford elaborated. “What do we do when our politics are different from other people’s politics, in our families, in our communities, in our subcultures? Do you pick up your toys and go home, or do you stay and hash it out?”
Mary Francis Moore, Theatre Aquarius’s artistic director and the director of A Christmas Story, programmed The Gig. “It’s probably not a play that other past artistic directors — with no disrespect to them — would have chosen,” said Crawford. “It was a push forward in terms of content. It was amazing to have audience members come up to me and say, woah, I’ve had a subscription for years, and I’ve never heard those conversations or those voices, or that [drag queen] sense of humor, on that stage.”
In a different way, this version of A Christmas Story also offers audiences a new perspective. On the one hand, “the splashy stuff [in the show] is amazing and spectacular,” Crawford said, and incorporates beloved moments from the film and short stories. The iconic leg lamp, a lighting fixture in the shape of a woman’s leg that Ralphie’s father wins in a crossword contest, has inspired a high-octane musical number that gets a leg up on the source material. “There is a full leg lamp dance break and kick-line,” Crawford shared.
On the other hand, it’s the musical’s smaller moments of humanity that “will actually surprise people who know the movie,” said Crawford. A Christmas Story is “about a kid with dreams,” he elaborated, “and a family who loves each other the best they can at the holidays, when there’s so much to do, and money is tight, and time is tight, and people are stressed out, and you want to get it right. That’s what the whole show is. People wanting to get it right and stuff going wrong.
“There’s a beautiful song that Ralphie’s mother, who’s played by Jamie McRoberts, sings to her boys in act two,” continued Crawford. “I almost started weeping [when I first heard it] — the tenderness of a mom taking care of her kids in this moment, and [me] standing there as the adult version of one of those kids. I think that’s so identifiable for people: those moments of tenderness and love between this family.”
A Christmas Story: The Musical runs at Theatre Aquarius from December 4 until December 22. Tickets are available here.
Nathaniel Hanula-James
Nathaniel Hanula-James is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who has worked across Canada as a dramaturg, playwright, performer, and administrator.
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